Adriano Lualdi (22 March 1885 – 8 January 1971) Italian composer and conductor.

Life and career

Lualdi was one of those artists in Italy whose reputation was subsequently diminished because of his early and continued avid support of

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

and

Italian fascism Italian fascism (), also called classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian fascism is associated with a series of political parties le ...

. He was musically precocious and was sent to

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

where he studied composition with

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (born Ermanno Wolf) (January 12, 1876 – January 21, 1948) was an Italian composer and teacher. He is best known for his comic operas such as ''Il segreto di Susanna'' (1909). A number of his works were based on plays by ...

at the

Santa Cecilia Santa Cecilia (English: Saint Cecilia) may refer to: Places Brazil * Santa Cecília, Santa, Catarina, a city * Santa Cecília (district of São Paulo), a district of the city of São Paulo and a neighbourhood within the district * Santa Cecília ...

conservatory. As a young musician, he conducted at

La Fenice Teatro La Fenice (; "The Phoenix Theatre") is a historic opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of "the most famous and renowned landmarks in the history of Italian theatre" and in the history of opera as a whole. Especially in the 19th cen ...

in Venice, the San Carlo Theater in Naples, as well as heading the conservatories in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

. He was a frequent contributor to musical journals and debates and collaborated with Mascagni and

Toscanini Arturo Toscanini (; ; March 25, 1867January 16, 1957) was an Italian conductor. He was one of the most acclaimed and influential musicians of the late 19th and early 20th century, renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orche ...

, who directed Lualdi's composition ''Il diavolo nel campanile'', based on Edgar Allan Poe's " The Devil in the Belfry." Lualdi organized the ''“900 musicale italiano”'' in 1927 in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, dedicated to music of the 20th century in Italy, as well as the first ''International Festival of Music'' in Venice in 1930, an adjunct of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. In 1929 he was elected to the Italian parliament. He then directed the

Naples conservatory This is a list of music conservatories in Naples, Italy. Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella The Naples Conservatory of Music is a music school located in Naples, Italy. It is situated in the complex of San Pietro a Majella. It was originally ...

for eight years and, later, the Cherubini conservatory in Florence.

Compositions

Symphonic poem

: ''La leggenda del vecchio marinaio'' (1910)

Operas

:''La figlia del re'' (1922) :''Le nozze di Haura'' (1922) :''Il diavolo nel campanile'' (1925) :''l’Albatro'' (1932) :''Samnium''

Others

:''La rosa di Saaron, for soprano, tenor, and orchestra'' :''Orchestra suites, “Adriatica”'' (1932), ''“Africa”'' (1936) :''String Quartet in E major'' :''Sonata for Violin and Piano''

Publications

:''Musical Travels in Italy'' (1927) :''Musical Travels in Europe'' (1928) :''Musical Travels in the USSR'' (1941)

References

External links

1885 births 1971 deaths Italian opera composers Italian male opera composers Italian fascists 20th-century Italian classical composers 20th-century male composers Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia alumni Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Kingdom of Italy) 20th-century Italian male musicians {{Italy-composer-stub